Do you believe in Santa Claus?

There is an old adage that goes something like, 'They don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care.' I guess some sales guy who hasn't sold a product without the help of a PR Firm and a marketing campaign thought that was a clever phrase to say when addressing a group of other salespeople at a convention or something. (By the way, the great Josh Haddon is available for any speaking events.)

There is another adage that says, 'The hardest door for a cold calling salesperson to open is the car door.' This one is discussing how even good salespeople fail because they dread cold calling, so they waste time or 'drive around' all day instead of prospecting.

For every hundred or so of these catchy phrases I read, I appreciate about one of them. Let's take a look at theses two:

Wouldn't actually CARING about your customers mean that you believed in your product so much you would stop at nothing to tell them about it? I always tell my salespeople that I will give them a reference for any career on the planet if they resign, and tell me it is because they don't believe in our product.

The number one rule of being a top Sales Professional is to believe in what you provide to your customers. So if one of these quoted sales guys would just say, "BELIEVE IN YOURSELF AND YOUR PRODUCT OR MOVE ON." We wouldn't need cute little adages like the ones above.

If you believed in yourself and your product you would:

(I encourage you to make your own list of what you would do differently if you truly believed in yourself and your product)

-Not hit the snooze button when your alarm goes off.
-Seize everyday as a chance to help others and be the best you can be.
-Tell everyone you know that could benefit from it, about your product.
-Start early, leave late.
-Use the product yourself.
-Receive a testimonial, written or videotaped, from everyone customer you have.
-Be happier than you could possibly imagine.
-ETC...

I CAN sell anything and HAVE sold everything. In the last decade I've been in the best on every team I was on, no matter what the product was. However, sometimes I was only the best by one or two units a month. The times when I have blown the rest of my team out of the water, were the times when I truly believed in what I was selling. If my mentor has said it once, he has said it one thousand times - 'We transfer belief for a living.' Maybe he knew how genius that really was. If don't have belief, you have nothing to transfer.


I'll leave you with a fun little adage my Mom used to say to us every December when we were kids, 'If you don't believe, you don't receive.' I thought sales is like Halloween, but I guess it is also like Christmas. Hmm, life is a sale.

You're a Diaper Wearing Child!

Well, you used to be. You used to be in diapers. You didn't know anything was wrong with that until someone told you so. If it wasn't for your parents choosing to potty train you, you might still be running around with fecal crap in your pants.

Gross right? I know.

The point is, you used to be alot of things. That is what is so amazing about life, which is one long sale, at any point you can choose to stop being those things and evolve. Think back to high school. I'd bet that most of you would be described by your high school peers as totally different people than you are now. For example; I know there are people that would describe me as anything from a devout Catholic Alter-boy; to the best sales manager in the world; to the worst sales manager in the world; to a Jock; to a drug addicted thief. All are right in their minds - yet both are dead wrong today.

Everyday in our personal and professional lives we are allotted a fresh start. A brand new day to learn about the world and learn about ourselves. Last week you might have taken long lunches and gone home early, well then last week you were a typical salesperson. This week you can choose to eat on the run and work until 6PM. By doing that, this week you are on your way to becoming a true Sales Professional.

You are what you consistently do, not what you've consistently done.

Practice good habits, learn everyday and do your best. You will not become who you want to be overnight. However, you can start becoming that person any time you choose.

As my mentor always says; 'When's the best time to do something?...NOW'

Full Of It Fridays.

Fridays are notorious for being the day salespeople start late and leave early (Especially in Business to Business Sales) - that's if they decide to work at all. Our team is lucky in the sense that they have a Sales Manager who has made every mistake they have made, or will make in the future. Our team is also lucky because I generally know what they are thinking before they think it. I'm a realist - sometimes to a fault.

Every Friday I hear the same lame excuses for why a salesperson isn't working.

- "Josh, I cold called for a few hours this morning and no decision makers are working."
- "Josh, every business I've called went to voicemail."
- "Josh, you know Friday's are horrible for cold calling."
- "Come on, if you ran a business would you be working today. It's gorgeous outside."

Salespeople like the ones above are full-of-it. I've been there though. Early in my career I pleaded with my Sales Manager to let me leave early. I came up with way better excuses than the ones above and the sad part is - my Sales Manager's either bought it or didn't care enough to argue with me.

After being a typical salesperson for a while, going into debt and working too hard; I now see Friday's as fun days. They are the days I write most of my orders. Let me put it this way; all week you've been following up, pitching, tweaking proposals and hammering away - Friday is like the universal 'get 'er done day' (Excuse the Fargo-ian reference). For most people, everything that was on the to-do list Monday, gets scratched off on Fridays. If you're persistent, available and have a good weekly value proposition; you'll ink loads of orders on Fridays.

As with everything in sales; If you THINK you won't make money on Fridays - you won't. If you THINK you will make money on Friday's - you will. It's 11:55 Friday morning and I have a rep who finalized three orders this morning and a another rep who finalized two.

I'll write a piece on the weekly value proposition next week. People generally want to have less things to worry about and they want to have less on their plate. By combining people's human nature with a weekly value proposition; Fridays are FANTASTIC selling days for true Sales Professionals.

Think I'm full of it? What did you do this morning?

Biggest Mistakes Salespeople Make.

Donald Trump said, "Without passion you have no enthusiasm, without enthusiasm you have nothing."

If ever someone is a poster child for failing upwards, Donald Trump is. He has made lots of mistakes. We make mistakes every single day. Learning from them is great but some mistakes cannot be undone.

In sales, there are three mistakes that guarantee you are not successful:

1) Not realizing how important your attitude is to your success. You wake up every morning and you have more choices than you realize. You can decide to make $100 that day or $1000. You can decide to hit the snooze button, not shave or watch Sports Center. I haven't hit the snooze button on my alarm clock in 4 years! Have you? Your attitude dictates your success - no question about it. One hundred years ago or so, Napoleon Hill (Sign Up for the Daily Newsletter) wrote something like - Whatever the mind can believe and conceive it can achieve. Ain't that the truth! A huge part of being a successful Sales Professional is thinking you can and expecting positive results.

2) Getting into sales for the money. Again, The Donald is right. If you don't love what you do, you will never be as successful as you could be. You will never achieve all the goals you've set for yourself. Passionless sales people don't make anywhere near the money an enthusiastic and passionate Sales Professional does. You have to love this profession to be the best. Being a Sales Professional is like being the driver of a roller coaster - it's intense, exhilarating and fun as hell. If you're in sales for the money - QUIT. Go be a lawyer or lobbyist.

3) Excuse making and blaming others. If you are the type of person who always finds a way to pass the buck, sales is not for you. The great thing about being a Sales Professional is that the buck ALWAYS stops at you. You control your destiny. Whiners don't make it in sales. Your computers crashed - whine. Your car broke down - whine. UPS lost the package I sent - whine. Why don't you go back to your Mom's house and live there. Then while you are at it, you can tell your Sales Manager that your dog ate your proposal and the prospect didn't buy because your prices are too high (you baby). Not taking full responsibility for your success doesn't work in sales. In the old days they would say that cold calling outside sales separates the Men from the Boys. Really it just separates the losers from the winners. Making excuses is for losers. So in short, if you don't make it in sales - you're likely a loser.

If this offended you, I feel sorry for your organization. If this inspired you to grow and evolve from a typical salesperson to Great Sales Professional - email me and I have a great position for you.

You're a Scum Bag!

Sales Rep: "I had the worst day ever! This bitch at XYZ Corp. kicked me out of the building and told me she was going to call the cops."

Me: "That happens all the time when you're new at this. I've only been kicked out of maybe three buildings in my entire life. What could you have done differently?"

Sales Rep: "Nothing. I was polite. I told her I was from _______ and then gave her a brochure and started telling her why we are better than their current provider."

Me: "What else did you tell her?"

Sales Rep: "I told her we would save her money and that we've been in the business for 75 years and, I don't know...a bunch of stuff. She kept saying she wasn't interested so I kept telling her why she should give me 5 minutes of her time."

Me: "Did you ask her anything?"

Sales Rep: "Not really, I didn't get the chance. She kicked me out after me being there for only 5 minutes."

I have conversations with salespeople just like the one above about once a week. They give me the same excuses as the week before, take no responsibility for the prospect's actions and they whine. Why do cold calls sometimes end with the salesperson being kicked out of the office? That's easy: BECAUSE THEY ARE A SALESPERSON.

In order to be successful at selling, (or any form of persuasion for that matter) you must be able to mentally trade places with the person you are speaking with. You have to understand their mindset, trade places with them and be sympathetic to what they are feeling.

Every training session I conduct, I ask the salespeople one question: What do people think of when they hear the word 'salesperson'? The answers vary, but the following four come out every single time:
-Pushy/Closers
-Greedy/Only worried about their commission
-Fake
-Slimy/Greasy/Used Car Salesmen/Scumbag etc.

This exercise is beneficial because it is a HUGE wake up call for many salespeople. It shouldn't be. We've all dealt with a salesperson like the one described above. However, for some reason, as soon as you get your business cards many of you adopt a holier than thou persona.

The facts are these:
-You are a salesperson.
-You are stereotyped to be the typical salesperson.
-The typical salesperson is the one we've just defined.
-The typical salesperson is a failure.
-The typical salesperson scares people.
-The typical salesperson puts people on edge and makes them put a wall up.
-The typical salesperson is the last person people want to talk to. You're right up there with ex-wives and mother in laws.

Now that you have this information, it is your goal to separate yourself from every other salesperson out there and become a Sales Professional. You can start separating yourself by asking questions instead of stating facts. Next, you can do the exact opposite of what a your think the typical sales person would do. Every interaction with a customer is a chance to change what they think about you and your profession.

Next time you are with a customer, remember, they hate you and you are a scumbag - until you convince them otherwise.